When we write about composers, we chronicle in one way or another the music and its role in the life of our societies, and its contribution to improving the artistic taste of the public. Colleague Fahd Al-Shugairan says, in an article he wrote in Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper (3/9/2017), that the history of music is also a history of its relationships and connections with politics, the arts, philosophies, and ideas, adding that music is a world that enters into all fields, including physics. Evidence that Einstein considered it a partner in facilitating the solution of what is difficult for the world of physics. Hence, we find that all civilizations, since the Sumerian and Babylonian eras up to the Umayyad, Abbasid and Andalusian Islamic eras and the era of the European Renaissance, paid attention to music, linked it to its rituals, and dealt with it as part of the intellectual, emotional, emotional and mental formation of man since his ancient times. Rather, it worked to develop its means and instruments, as in The case of the Arab oud, for example, whose belly was leather before it acquired its name from the woody material from which it is made.
The Arab Library contains a good number of works that were written on Arabic music or dealt with through extensive discussion of its stars and pillars. Among the most important examples in this regard: the book of the Lebanese journalist and broadcaster George Ibrahim Al-Khoury on Muhammad Abdel-Wahhab, the book of the Lebanese political analyst Hazem Saghieh on Umm Kulthum, the book of the Saudi writer Ahmed Al-Wasel on singing in the Arabian Peninsula, and the book of the Jordanian critic Ziyad Al-Assaf on the forgotten on Arabic singing, Maestro Salim Sahab researched “The Egyptian School of Music and Singing in the Nineteenth Century,” the Iraqi writer Ali Al-Shawk’s book on the secrets of music, the Egyptian composer Muhammad Kamel Al-Khalai’s book on oriental music, the Kuwaiti researcher Ahmed Ali’s book on music and singing in Kuwait, and the Bahraini writer Mubarak’s book. Amr Al-Ammari, on the authority of the pioneer of Gulf sound art, Muhammad bin Faris, and the book of the Bahraini artist, Ibrahim Habib, on his compatriot, the artist, Muhammad Zuwaid.
Cairo rejects Talal's thesis
However, no one in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has ever written a doctoral dissertation on a Saudi artist, except for the creative composer Adnan Khoj. The latter chose to be the subject of his doctoral dissertation, which is about the art of “Talal Maddah” and the impact he left on the march of the Saudi song.
It is customary for Arab art and music aficionados, if they want to hone their talents through academic studies, to travel to Egypt, the artistic lung of the Arab world, the gateway to fame and stardom, and home to the oldest and most prestigious music schools in the Arab world, represented by the Higher Institute of Arab Music in Cairo. This institute was opened starting in 1914 by Mustafa Bek Reda in the form of a club with the aim of teaching music and preserving the Arab musical heritage. However, in 1921 the Egyptian government allocated a piece of land for it in Ramses Square and decided to convert it into an institute under the name “The Royal Institute of Arab Music.” And King Fuad I personally inaugurated it. In 1969, when the Academy of Arts was founded, the institute was annexed to it and its headquarters were moved from Ramses Square to its current location in Al-Haram.
And Adnan Khoj did not deviate from the path taken by others, so he traveled to Cairo like others in order to hone his artistic talents through academic study at this institute, so he studied and worked hard until the institute awarded him a bachelor's degree in music in 1983. Khoj was not satisfied with that academic degree and wanted to continue his studies in Egypt to obtain a doctorate degree in music, so he decided that his thesis should be on the artist Talal Maddah, as we mentioned before, and he worked on it in research, review and revision with the support and blessing of Talal Maddah, but he was surprised that it was rejected by the Higher Institute of Arab Music when he submitted it.
The rejection was not due to a defect in the scientific material of the dissertation or in the research method of its author. Rather, it was rejected on the grounds that it was related to the art and antiquities of a non-Egyptian singer, and therefore the most appropriate place to discuss it is in a Saudi university. This refusal and its justifications were a shock to Adnan Khoj, as well as to the artist Talal Maddah, who was said to have wanted to celebrate his colleague Khoj's attainment of a doctorate, but he left next to his Lord before achieving what he wished for.
The interest of the French in Talal’s music. Khoj’s next step was to travel to France, where he first joined the Institute of Arab Music in Paris, which awarded him a diploma in music in 1992. Then he submitted a dissertation to the Sorbonne University that had previously been rejected by the Higher Institute of Arab Music in Cairo, so it was discussed and passed with honors. . About this, Khoj said that the French are more interested than the Arabs in Talal Maddah's music because they do not deal with music on an ethnic basis, but rather on a global basis, as art and music in particular have no homeland. And when they found an Arabic thesis represented in my doctoral dissertation, they took care of it and supported me through 7 years of continuous effort until 22 professors were convinced and agreed to grant me the certificate and held an honoring ceremony for me in France.
lover since childhood
Adnan Khoj was born in Medina in May 1947. He fell in love with music from a young age, and dreamed of being one of its pillars, so he began learning to play the oud, the master of oriental musical instruments. Although he had a beautiful voice, according to the testimony of everyone who knew and listened to him, including the two great artists Talal Maddah and Muhammad Abdo, he preferred to direct all his energies towards composing for others. In the reasons for this, Khoj mentioned in an interview with him published by the Saudi newspaper Al-Madina (4/7/2012) that he is naturally shy and afraid of confronting the public, adding: “There are those who love themselves and do not like to hear anything but themselves, and they are the ones who write the words and they are the ones who compose them.” And he also sings it, and in the end he is the audience who hears .. and I am the opposite of those ».
Saudi song developer
In order to master composing according to its origins, he decided to join the Higher Institute of Arabic Music in Cairo, as mentioned above. In Cairo, he not only studied music, but also had the opportunity to learn about the musical treasures that Egypt abounds in, and to get acquainted with the masters of rapture, singing, and composing. When he returned to his homeland with a bachelor's degree, he was emotionally attached to the artist Talal Maddah, who at that time was dominating the Saudi art scene with the Arab artist Muhammad Abdo. Khoj saw Talal (according to a speech he delivered at the King Fahd Cultural Center on 4/5/2012 on the occasion of the twelfth anniversary of the death of the artist Talal Maddah), that Talal is the developer of the Saudi song since he sang “Your Rose, O Planter of Roses,” and that His art is the most widespread Saudi art in all parts of the Arab world, expressing his pride that Talal relied on him greatly in the musical execution of most of his works. Khoj also mentioned on that festive evening that he would not have known the Saudi and Arab journalistic body had it not been for his adhesion and work with Talal, who had close relations with the press and its symbols, as well as with the giants of Arab art such as the musician Muhammad Abdel-Wahhab, for whom he composed the song “What Do I Say?” and said about him "It is one of the most beautiful voices I have heard in the Arab world."
Close relationship with Maddah
The friendship that linked Talal Maddah with Adnan Khoj allowed the latter to tell many of the qualities and brilliance of his friend, and to refute what was unjustly said about him. And from that, he said with an act, “Talal was looking for what served people and was their supporter in most situations, and what distinguished him was that his voice immortalized the songs and made them a place in the map of Arab art, as he was serving all artists and providing them with advice and assistance, whether the artist was old or young, Among them was the Arab artist, Muhammad Abdo.” And he said, “Talal was not arrogant, but rather he sang for all the great and young artists. Khoj is an incident that happened to Talal while accompanying him on one of his artistic trips to Cairo, according to which, during previous rehearsals for a concert there, Talal asked the orchestra to list the songs he would sing during the concert, but the band refused on the grounds that most of his songs are easy and do not need to be mentioned. So, Talal was only ignoring the matter and insisting that the band get embarrassed by asking them to perform a difficult musical phrase from one of his songs, and when they failed, they used him to intend it.
Distance from Muhammad Abdo
Several years before Talal Maddah's death on August 11, 2000, Khoj collaborated in 1985 with the latter's rival and rival, artist Muhammad Abdo, by composing the song "Al-Ma'azim" from the words of the Kuwaiti poet Faiq Abdul-Jalil. This lyrical masterpiece achieved a resounding success because of its lyrics that transcended dictionaries and bestowed a human content that transcends geographical and temporal boundaries, and then because of the hidden meanings that merged the alienation of the Gulf man in the post-oil boom era with his fear of exposing his virginal love or his sensual love in front of his society, as was evident in the words. Next: O eyes of the universe, turn a blind eye, let two eyes talk to an eye, let us longing not leave caution, without fear we meet.. without confusion we meet, with her eyes and eyes she finds the sweetest homeland and all the security, every migratory smile returned to my lips, all the lost paths, when does my step call, O step of alienation, farewell to my journey, my joy, luck tonight is generous, my beloved is invited among the guests (according to what Ahmed Al-Wasel wrote on page 107 of his book “Witches of the Gulf: Studies in the Singing of the Arabian Peninsula”), but despite the success of the song, Khoj did not repeat experiment with Abdou. Khoj talked about the reasons in his press interview with Al-Madina newspaper (a former source), and he said: “There may be differences of opinion between us, or that Muhammad Abdo has become a composer who composes most of his songs himself and does not need me for example, besides that I live in a place that is not Close to it, because the distance made communication cut off between us, and therefore technical cooperation was cut off, although I hope that there will be new cooperation and I have new melodies that suit it.
tribute in Alexandria
Thus, after composing the song “Al-Ma’azim” and a number of Talal Maddah’s songs, the most famous of which is “The Signal” from the words of Ibrahim Khafaji, and “Baskat” by Prince Badr bin Abdul Mohsen, Khoj turned to composing for the singer Talal Salameh, who sang from his melodies the song “Don’t Resist There” and the song “In A cloud”, both of which are from the words of Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, in addition to the song “Jet” from the words of the poet Thuraya Qabil, and the singer Ali Abdul Karim composed the song “Night and Night” from the words of Saad Al-Khuraiji. Among the Arab stars who sang from his tunes: Fayza Ahmed, Afaf Radi, Sharifa Fadel, the Tunisian Munira Hamdi and the Syrian Sabah Fakhri, which became famous with him in Egypt, so he was honored in 2012, during the 9th Alexandria International Song Festival, along with Ammar Al-Sherai’i, Muhammad Nouh and Abdel-Latif. Al-Tilbani, Walid Tawfiq, Medhat Saleh and Laila Murad.
In his last years, Khoj suffered from liver health problems, so he traveled for treatment in the United States, but he did not find a cure because the cancer had spread in his body and spread, so he preferred to return to his homeland for hospitalization at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh. On the morning of Sunday, the third of May 2015, he moved to his Lord's house at the age of fifty-six, after suffering for more than a year. His will was to pray for him and bury him in his hometown of Medina.
Disappointed with the state of the music scene… sabotage, not renewal
By reviewing his interviews with the press before his death, we find that he was frustrated with what was happening in the singing scene, especially in terms of honoring the young and ignoring the old. He harmed the Arabic song, explaining: “The song of these days does not present anything, does not discuss anything, and has no purpose. The songs of these days are poor and are based on the major scale, the minor scale, the Kurds and the non-Arabs. And today's artist does not use any other shrines, because he believes that he will not be able to communicate the song through it. "The distributor is doing everything now," he said. The composer taps on the table, and the distributor takes this tap and composes the refrain for him, then inserts some Turkish music into it, and in the Gulf they insert Indian music and in Lebanon they insert Greek music. He leaves his house and sleeps outside. In the past they took from our music, now we take from theirs. In the past, when great musicians took Western musical phrases, they knew how to use them, but now either an exact copy is taken or a distorted one is taken. The Gulf melodies are currently dominated by the Indian melodies and the Indian style. The musicians, in turn, are influenced by Indian melodies. This is what is known today as renewal, and it is in fact “sabotage.” There is a difference between renewal and sabotage.
In those press interviews, the reader discovers that Khoj, may God have mercy on him, was dissatisfied with the transformation of art into a trade and with the transformation of the artist-singer into a mere person who entertains the audience, nothing more. It is not art, but clowning.. If we look at the art of the monologue that used to make us laugh and hear the melody through it.. we will find that the current art does not even rise to the monologue and has no classification. The monologue was an art like the one presented by Ismail Yassin and Shukou, and the musician of generations, Muhammad Abdel Wahhab, was composing for these. As for what is presented today, it is not art.
Although he referred to the private media as a catalyst for the success and spread of the Gulf song, he warned of its danger to various types of arts when this media turns into a merchant looking for quick profit without caring about quality.
Written by: Dr. Abdullah Al Madani – Professor of International Relations in the Kingdom of Bahrain @ abu_taymour
